Tomodachi
by Kaizoku no Kazoku
Summary: What if Lee had met Gaara as a child, before all the things that happened to Gaara to turn him into a killer? AU No pairing


Title: Tomodachi

Summary: What if Lee had met Gaara as a child, before all the things that happened to Gaara to turn him into a killer? AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Gaara, I don't own Lee, or any of the characters of Naruto. But if I did... well, you know.

--

The Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village was here on an official two-day visit to Konoha. He'd also done something he rarely did. He'd brought his kids along with him. Six year old Lee was excited at the prospect of meeting them, especially the youngest who was closest to him in age. Oh, Lee had heard the stories and rumors about the Kazekage's youngest son, but figured that the boy couldn't be as bad as everyone made him out to be. He wondered whether or not he would get a chance to meet the boy as he jumped his five-hundredth jump over the rope he spun in his hands, training in the hopes that he could one day enter the ninja academy.

--

Gaara, who'd slipped away from his uncle's care for the moment, was aimlessly wondering Konoha in a fruitless search for children whom he could befriend. He had thought that Konoha's children might be different, that he'd be more accepted here. But unfortunately, while their treatment wasn't as harsh, it was very little better. He was either called names or otherwise mistreated. He'd somehow managed not to lash out, but at the same time, he couldn't keep his frustration from showing. Angered, and even more saddened, he ran away, rivulets of tears flowing down his young face. He didn't stop until he reached a clearing, plopping down noiselessly, leaning against a tree.

--

Lee had just jumped his six-hundred-ninetynineth jump when he heard quiet sobbing in the distance. The distraction caused the seven-hundredth swing of the rope to catch the edge of his foot and send him lunging uncontrollably forward. He let go of the rope just as he hit the ground, earning him a couple of skinned palms.

He sat up and held his hands to his face, blowing on his stinging palms to ease the pain. As he got up, he dusted them gently against each other in order to dislodge the dirt, then he ran in the direction of the sobbing.

--

Gaara wiped at the still flowing tears with the back of his hand. Why did everyone treat him so badly? It wasn't as if he could help that he was different. Was he destined to be alone and hated all his life? He couldn't bear the thought of that. Fresh tears spilled down his face even as he tried to stop them.

"What's wrong?"

Gaara gasped, startled at the voice that had just come out of nowhere. His sand stirred a bit at the intrusion as his head jerked up, surprised. In front of him stood a little boy around his own age dressed in Chinese clothing, but what stood out for him was that the boy had the shiniest hair and the biggest eyes he'd ever seen.

The biggest eyes he'd ever seen seemed to grow even bigger as the boy seemed to recognize him. But to Gaara's surprise, instead of running away, the little boy moved closer and squatted down. "Are you Gaara? The Kazekage's son?"

Gaara lowered his head again, bracing himself for the worst. Another rejection coming.

"I've heard about you..."

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he gripped his knees tighter.

"But you don't seem as bad as they say. You look like you're nice enough."

Gaara's head popped up, again surprised. The boy held out his hand and smiled cheerfully.

"My name is Rock Lee. I don't have any friends... Do you want to be my friend?"

He had -not- been expecting this. Another child actually willing to befriend him? It was too much. Still, he found his head slowly nodding of it's own accord. He took the offered hand, shaking it, then Lee tightened his hand around Gaara's, helping him into a stand.

"It's so nice to meet you Gaara-san!" Lee exclaimed, happy to finally have a friend he could talk to. "If you want to, I can show you a little bit around Konoha."

"The people aren't very nice to me though..." Gaara said quietly, averting his eyes; a sad frown threatening to crease his little hairless brow.

Lee sighed a little, "It's the same way with me. I want to be a ninja when I get old enough for the academy but..." Lee faltered a bit. "I can't do any jutsu... Watch." Lee did the hand seals carefully and properly. "HENGE NO JUTSU!"

Gaara watched as absolutely nothing happened whatsoever.

"BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Nothing.

Lee's eyes started to tear up and he wiped them before they could fall. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Hmm," Gaara thought for a minute, then suggested, "Why not jutsu something you have already? It won't be a real jutsu, but it'll sort of seem like one. Like for example: RED HAIR NO JUTSU! See? My hair is red!"

Lee's face brightened. "I see! LONG BRAID NO JUTSU! Look how long my hair is!"

"Wow, that's really long! BLACK RING NO JUTSU! Look at my eyes Lee!" Gaara exclaimed, fingers forming round frames to show off his eyes.

Lee laughed, "I like that! Very nice! GLEAM NO JUTSU! Now my hair is nice and shiny! Don't you think, Gaara-san?"

"Yes I do! SEA GREEN NO JUTSU!"

"WHITE, SHINY TEETH NO JUTSU!"

They continued on like this for a long while, laughing and playing with their pretend jutsus. Gaara had never had this much fun before in his entire life, nor except for Lee, had another child ever looked at him with anything other than fear, disdain, or hatred. And Lee was just happy to have someone who didn't make fun of his disability. Everything was fine until...

"Stupid!" shouted a voice to Lee's left. "Are you trying to be a ninja again? You'll -never- be a true ninja! You can't do any -real- jutsus!"

Lee's hands stopped mid-seal and he turned to face two other boys who'd come to taunt him. While he was used to the taunting, it didn't make his feelings hurt any less. He knew of his own inability to perform jutsus, but it hurt when others taunted him for it. He couldn't help how he was.

"I -can- be a real ninja! I won't need jutsus!" he shouted as tears came unbidden to his eyes and threatened to fall. "You'll see!"

"Oh yeah?" The boy speaking taunted, then without warning, pushed Lee to the ground hard enough to make his hair unravel on contact. "If you were a real ninja, you would have seen that coming."

Before Lee could say anything however, hands seemingly made of sand swept the two boys off their feet and dangled them high above Lee and Gaara's heads. Lee glanced at Gaara, who held two fists out from his body, then back at the two taunting kids, now screaming in sheer terror. Gaara spoke then. "And you two should have seen this coming. I warn you, leave Lee alone." The boys nodded quickly. And with that, the sand deposited the two boys separately into the two highest trees around them.

Gaara withdrew the sand until it could no longer be seen. Then he looked over at Lee. Lee was watching him with wide eyes. Gaara had seen those eyes before. Those were the eyes of the children of Suna just before they ran away from him like frighten mice. Or so he thought, because a smile slowly spread across Lee's face.

"Wow, you're strong!" Lee stated with wonder lacing his voice. "I wish I was strong like that." He said as he looked up into the trees to the now crying children who were afraid to try to come down.

"Do they always treat you that way?" Gaara asked as he helped Lee up and Lee brushed himself off.

"You mean when they pushed me down?" Lee asked puzzled, as he bent over to pick up the now broken band that had held his hair in it's previous braid. "No, not always. But they do always tease me." he said with a sadness in his voice. He tucked some hair behind his ear as he spoke. "Not a day goes by when I'm not teased or taunted about something." He crushed the band in his hand in his anger.

"I wish I could stay here longer, then I could watch your back." Gaara told Lee as they started to walk away.

"And I could watch yours. Um, I don't think we should leave them like that." Lee said, glancing back at the other two children as he walked.

"Those trees are a genjutsu. I made it so that they will slowly disperse on their own in about a half hour. Don't worry too much about it."

"Oh, okay."

--

Later that evening, after a meal at Ichiraku Ramen, Lee and Gaara found themselves at a park where they played on the swings. Afterwards, Lee sat quietly in his swing as Gaara told him all about his life at home.

"That's terrible!" Lee exclaimed angrily, clutching hard at the swing ropes. "People don't even treat -me- that badly. I wish I could go with you when you go home, so I can watch your back there. I would never let those people treat you that way." Lee took a deep breath as he swung his swing a little with his foot. "At least you have an uncle who cares about you."

"Yeah." Gaara agreed solemnly, looking down at his lap. "He's the only one who does care about me. Besides you I mean. Everyone else sees me as this monster to be scared of... Or hated..." Gaara used his arm to wipe some tears away. More took their place.

Lee grabbed Gaara and sat on the ground, holding him in his arms and giving him a literal shoulder to cry on. What must it be like to actually have nearly everyone you know hate you? With him, people mostly just ignored him, only a few kids actually picked on him, and noone hated him or was afraid of him. At least noone he knew of. But then, who'd be afraid of harmless, unable-to-jutsu, chronically-nice-to-everyone, little Rock Lee? Lee held the other boy in his embrace in a way that would let Gaara know that he was there for him.

Lee didn't know how long he'd held Gaara like that, but it was fast approaching nightfall when a soft voice startled them both. "Gaara-sama."

Both Lee and Gaara looked up, then Gaara recognized the face of Yashamaru, his uncle. " I've been looking all day for you. You shouldn't run off like that" he said gently, squatting to ruffle Gaara's hair.

"I'm sorry, Yashamaru." Gaara said contritely, but then brightened up as he continued. "But look! I found a new friend! His name is Lee!"

Yashamaru looked over to Lee with a smile. "It's nice to meet you Lee."

Gaara continued in a gush of words. "We ate ramen together, and we did pretend jutsus together, and I helped protect him from..."

"Wait! Wait!" Yashamaru exclaimed with laughter. "You can tell me all about your day as we walk back, okay? Lee, would you like me to walk you home?"

Lee shook his head, tucking some hair behind an ear. "No, it's ok, I don't live too far from here."

Gaara spoke up then, "Tomorrow's my last day here, let's meet here again tomorrow before I have to go back."

"Okay!" Lee agreed.

"Well, see you around, Lee. Come on, Gaara." and Yashamaru held out his hand to the little red-haired boy. Lee watched them walk off, then started for home himself. Hands behind his head, he walked with his head in the clouds.

--

Pulling on a nice cool pair of pajamas because of the warm night, Lee slid into bed and thought about his day. He'd made a new friend and had had a lot of fun today. And as his eyes slowly slid closed, he felt that there was no better feeling in the world.

--

That's it for this story so far. I had planned to have more chapters, but I had so much trouble writing a few parts of this one, I've decided not to write anything else for it until I can piece together my ideas for the second chapter.

If you liked this, please R&R and put it on Story Alert. Maybe one day there will be another chapter.


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